Xi Jinping's parade symbolises today's Chinese nationalism
Tomorrow's celebration marking the 80th anniversary of the “Victory over Japan”, featuring a display of China's arsenal, is the other side of Beijing's “multilateralism”. In 2024, China spent US$ 314 billion on new weapons, second-highest military spending in the world after the United States. Japan too is also rearming in a dangerous race for the entire Asia-Pacific region.
Milan (AsiaNews) – Tomorrow's eagerly awaited parade in Beijing, strongly backed by Xi Jinping, is the other side of the Chinese-style "multilateralism" recently held up to the world as a "model" during the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Tianjin.
This parade does not celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but rather what official Chinese rhetoric describes as the “Victory over Japan”. It does so by strongly projecting today's nationalism onto the events of that time, to the point of pushing the start of World War II back to 1931, a date much more suited to the anti-Japanese narrative.
The anniversary is presented as a victory for the People's Republic of China, glossing over the fact that the Kuomintang nationalists also fought the Japanese, before they were forced to retreat to the "rebel province" of Taiwan in 1949.
It is therefore not surprising that at this very moment in history, Xi Jinping is preparing to display the full power of his arsenal.
According to the Stockholm-based SIPRI, the most authoritative international observatory on military spending, China, which is the world's second-largest military spender after the United States, boosted military spending by 7.0 per cent in 2024, to an estimated US$ 314 billion.
China’s military spending has been steadily rising since the 1990s. Last year, Beijing accounted for 50 per cent of all military spending in Asia and Oceania, investing primarily in the modernisation of its armed forces, but also in expanding its cyber warfare capabilities and its nuclear arsenal (which has reached 600 warheads).
China’s arms race is triggering reactions from the countries that perceive it most as a threat.
Japan itself is expected to increase its arms spending to US$ 55.3 billion in 2024, a 21 per cent increase, the highest annual increase since 1952.
Just on the eve of the Beijing parade, the Japanese Ministry of Defence announced plans to deploy long-range missiles to a military base in southern Japan by the end of the year, as part of its counterattack capability.
With a range of about 1,000 kilometres, these missiles can strike from beyond the radar and missile systems of “enemy forces" (which can be easily identified), and be launched from ground-based sites and vehicles, as well as from ships and destroyers.
The first land-based missiles will be deployed at Camp Kengun, Kumamoto Prefecture, marking the start of a radical departure from Japan’s exclusively defensive post-war military doctrine, made possible only after the revision of national security documents in 2022.
This is raising concerns. Civic groups in Kumamoto have already expressed fears that their communities could become targets during a military conflict.
For Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, the “Major military spenders in the Asia–Pacific region are investing increasing resources into advanced military capabilities.” But “With several unresolved disputes and mounting tensions, these investments risk sending the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral.”
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